A Good Day Today
by raendown
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "Wouldn't it be funny if gaiden!Sakura gushed to Kakashi about how handsome Sukea was and then the next day Sukea just happened to stop by Konoha for the first time in years?"


Sakura had picked up a lot of habits during her time as Tsunade's apprentice. She did not pick up her alcohol tolerance.

Kakashi grinned behind his mask as his former student swayed on the bar stool next to his own. Her hair was falling out of the perfect coiffure it had been in only a few hours earlier and her cheeks almost matched the messy locks in color. One delicate hand held a dish of sake. The other held tightly to the bar to stop her from toppling over while she giggled.

"And then – ahahahahaha – and then do you know what she said?" Sakura ducked her head and giggled in to her own chest. "She said – heehee – she said she'd only done it for his pretty face!" Her laughter was like tiny little bells tinkling in his ears and he thought sappily to himself that he wished it would never stop.

"Maa, Ibiki? I don't know that I would call his face pretty, exactly," his murmur only egged her on. When she finally caught her breath enough, Sakura downed the sake left in her grasp and refilled the dish from the bottle sitting between them. Kakashi had only had a couple drinks himself even though he'd paid for the whole bottle. He didn't mind her drinking it all, however. Not if it bought him the pleasure of her company for the evening. After refilling her cup Sakura glanced over to him and smiled conspiratorially, almost fondly.

"Yeah, he's got nothin' on that…that…guy," she slurred. Kakashi raised one silvery eyebrow.

"Oh yes. That guy." He nodded sagely as if he knew exactly the person she was speaking of, hoping it would deter her from getting more specific. He didn't really want to hear her wax poetic about someone else. Crushing on his former student was bad enough. Having to listen to her talk about the men she would prefer over her jaded, aging sensei was worse. Contrary to his wishes Sakura picked up on the note of falsity in his tone and tried her best to elaborate.

Letting go of the bar, the pinkette waved a hand flippantly through the air as she declared, "Oh you know. _That guy_. The one who we – um – maybe you don't know? When we were genin, remember? Remember when we were genin?" She leaned right up in to his personal bubble with a face as earnest as he'd ever seen. Kakashi simply smiled as he allowed for the invasion of his space and tried not to inhale too much of her sake breath.

"Yes Sakura," he said softly. "I remember when you were genin." She beamed at him.

"Yeah! And we were always tryin' to see your face!" She pointed at his face, prodding a finger against the tip of his nose and wiggling it back and forth minutely. If she had been sober, she never would have done such a thing. If she were sober it would have struck her how significant it was that he _let_ her do such a thing. As it was, almost near the bottom of her third bottle of sake, Sakura only giggled and kept going. "We hired this guy to follow you around and take pictures of you. To try and see your face. Only it didn't work cause you're a sneaky bastard. I don't – did we ever tell you that?"

When she took her hand back and sat up to reach for more alcohol, Kakashi battled the smirk he could feel forming under the mask. He took a moment to choke back the smug feeling rising inside him in order to sound nonchalant as he replied, "Ah. I think you mentioned him. If I recall his name was…Sukea?"

"SUKEA!" One hand pounded the bar top in a gesture of triumph. Neither of them paid attention to the sound of wood cracking under the sudden blow. "That's it! Sukea! Now that is what I would call a pretty face. If I had been a few years older back then… _mmm_ what I would _do_ to a face like that." The young woman took a few moments to drift off in to daydreams, ostensibly involving a pretty face and some rather R-rated activities. Kakashi only barely held in his glee.

His face? Out of every face she'd ever seen in her life, his was the prettiest? The one that made such an impact she was still thinking about it even years later? The urge to rub his hands together in satisfaction was nearly overwhelming. This was an opportunity he simply could not pass up on. It almost definitely wouldn't lead anywhere. For obvious reasons 'Sukea' couldn't stick around Konoha for very long and Sakura had never struck him as a one night stand kind of girl. He'd never do that to her anyway. However, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be completely open with her. To flirt and have her flirt back. To know what it would be like for her attention to rest on him and him alone. As he looked upon the dreamy expression of the woman beside him, Kakashi made up his mind; Sukea was coming back to Konoha.

When Sakura woke up the next morning her head was trying very hard to convince her that death was a viable option. Her tongue tasted like something she might need to autopsy and her stomach was in the middle of staging a mutiny. It took a rapid journey to the toilet in order to expel the contents of last night's dinner before she had enough concentration to gather her chakra and press both palms to either side of her head. She might not have her shishou's alcohol tolerance but she had at least picked up some tricks for beating a hangover. It took five minutes and a few glasses of water but she felt almost as good as new by the time she was done.

The hard part came next: trying to remember everything that had happened last night. She recalled running in to Kakashi-sensei at the local watering hole. It had been a long day and she'd wanted to unwind a bit. Seeing her old teammate was always a happy occurrence for her so she'd gladly joined him for a few drinks. Things became a blur after the first bottle but she was pretty sure she could recall Kakashi walking her home like a perfect gentleman. In fact, she was pretty sure he'd had to carry her in and lay her on the bed.

Warmth suffused her cheeks at the thought of Kakashi in her bedroom but she battled it back down. Surely it hadn't meant anything more to him than helping out a comrade so she shouldn't make a big deal out of it either, right? Of course. The Copy Nin had a reputation for being an incorrigible pervert but Sakura had never actually seen him do much of anything that could be considered perverted. Other than reading his adult novels in public. If he had any sort of sex life at all it happened behind closed doors.

Trying to set the thought of Kakashi having a sex life out of her mind, Sakura forced herself up and out of bed. She should probably go find the man and apologize for her behavior last night. She couldn't remember as much as she'd like but she did know that she'd had quite a few drinks on his tab, which was strange considering how tight his purse strings usually were. If nothing else she should thank him kindly for that – maybe it would encourage the behavior. First, however, she needed to shower and find something to eat. The scent of alcohol and vomit coated her whole body and she definitely didn't want to trail that around town. Twenty minutes later she was clean, dressed in fresh clothing, and munching a toasted bagel as she locked the apartment door behind her.

The sun was bright enough this morning that Sakura was grateful she had taken the time to cure her headache before venturing outside. The weather was gorgeous, she reflected while wiping the remnant bagel crumbs off the front of her shirt. The sky was a brilliant sapphire blue with nary a cloud in sight and the trees swayed to the tune of a gentle breeze. It was absolutely perfect for picnics. Or photography.

Not even halfway to her destination the pinkette stopped dead, staring openly at the man a few feet down the road. He had messy hair in soft curls just a little in need of a trim and he was wearing a long coat and scarf even in the rising temperatures of early summer. He was also holding a camera, peering through the lens to where it was trained up at the Hokage Monument high above the village. It took a few moments for her to place why this stranger had caused her to stop and why she was sure she knew him. When the realization hit her, it did so with the force of her Cherry Blossom Clash.

"Sukea!" The exclamation left her lips without express permission of her mind. Tiny spots of color rose on her cheeks when the man reacted to his name, lowering his camera and looking around. Seeing as she was the only one looking right at him, it was obvious who had spoken.

"Yes?" He blinked questioningly at her, blank curiosity alight in his warm golden eyes. She floundered for something to say but before she could come up with anything his face lit up in a bright smile. An incredibly attractive smile. "Ah! I remember you! If it isn't one of the three cutest genin in Konoha! Sakura, wasn't it?"

"You…remember me? Wow. Yes, hi, it's me. Although, ah, I'm not a genin anymore." With a shy wave she stepped a little closer, watching Sukea let go of his camera to let it dangle loosely from the strap around his neck. He was almost _more_ attractive than her fading memories recalled, something that should have been impossible.

"How could I forget you? We had so much fun! Did you ever manage to see your old sensei's face like we were trying to?" His eager expression brought a grin to her lips. She shook her head.

"Unfortunately no," was her reply. "He's a very private person. I suppose he only shows his face to the people he's close to."

Sukea asked, looking genuinely surprised, if they weren't close. Sakura really didn't have an answer for that because she wasn't sure herself. Over the years since the war had ended, she had spent quite a bit of time with the older man. She had helped him during his first year as Hokage and he had supported her when she said she wanted to move more towards work at the hospital. They had dinners after work, met up at festivals, and trained together whenever schedules allowed. She had spilled more secrets to Hatake Kakashi than she had to even Ino, her supposed best friend. And yet, what did she know about him in return? Not a lot. She had no idea whether or not he considered them to be close.

So Sakura side stepped the question and asked what Sukea was doing back in town. She had spent enough time with her ex-sensei to pick up the art of deflection.

"I'm actually just passing through. I'm on my way to a nearby village for a photoshoot and couldn't resist stopping by to see how things have been at home." The golden eyed man tilted his head and rocked back on his heel. Then suddenly he was giving her the most blatantly appreciative up-and-down she had ever received. Once his eyes had travelled back up to meet her own startled gaze he smirked. "Some things have _definitely_ changed. I wonder, Sakura, if you'd like to have lunch with me." The predatory look in his eye did things to her insides that she couldn't truly identify. It had been a long time since someone this attractive had shown an open interest in her. It actually took a few heartbeats to shake off the dazzling effect of his smirk before she could say anything.

"I would gladly have a friendly lunch with you Sukea," she admitted hesitantly. "It's just…do you mean this as, um, a date?"

"A man can only hope," the photographer admitted with a shrug. "You have blossomed in to a beautiful young woman, Sakura. I would cherish the opportunity to be favored with your attentions."

Sakura stared a bit. Then stared some more. She tried hard to remember if Sukea had been so silver-tongued the last time she had met him. He was almost as upfront with his intentions as Rock Lee, although thankfully with less volume. However, there was more than one thing holding her back from accepting the invitation to turn lunch in to a romantic outing.

"I'm sorry Sukea. I would love to have lunch with you and hear about your journeys since the last time we met. But, I don't think I can offer anything more than good conversation." She blushed at the thought of what else he might have wanted from her. Certainly he was attractive, and in her private fantasies things would be different, but that was the only place she was going to have anything to do with him. The man before her looked genuinely surprised. He frowned and fiddled with his camera.

"I…see. May I ask why, Blossom? Is there someone else, perhaps, that holds your heart?" A deep blush suffused her cheeks.

"Well as you said, you're only passing through," she reasoned. "I'm not looking to start something we won't have the time to finish. And…yes. There is someone who, er, holds my heart."

"A lucky man indeed," Sukea conceded, his eyes strangely sad. "Especially to have someone so loyal."

Sakura shook her head with her own mournful expression and clarified, "Oh we're not together. I doubt very much he could ever see me in any sort of romantic connotation." At this her companion raised both of his eyebrows.

"Then he's stupid," he declared bluntly. Sakura laughed softly.

"Actually he's a venerated genius," she riposted and earned herself a smile.

"If I may be so bold, who is it? Might I know him?" He didn't even try to appear casual. Instead he looked almost intensely interested and it made her wonder why he cared so deeply. It wasn't as if they had anything invested in each other. It wasn't even as if they were very likely to ever meet again.

The pinkette argued with herself for a moment before speaking in soft tones, grateful that the street was empty around them. "I haven't had anyone to talk to about my feelings. I didn't want anything to get back to him, but you're not staying in Konoha and I don't think you're the sort of person to run away with gossip. You'll keep it to yourself, won't you?" He nodded and she sighed. It felt good to be able to let this out at last. "It's actually my old sensei. Kakashi." Sukea looked – there wasn't a word invented to do it justice. He looked flabbergasted, absolutely bowled over.

"You…the one you have feelings for…is Hatake Kakashi?" he asked. She nodded and clasped her hands behind her back insecurely.

"I think I'm in love with him, to be honest. It's just…I was his student. He probably thinks of me as a child. I don't know what I could ever do to make him think of me that way or convince him to try. I've gone on a couple dates to try and put him out of my mind but I always end up comparing them to him. They're not smart like he is, or funny like he is, or loyal or caring or _something_. They always fall short." She gave the man a helpless look. "I seem to have a thing for unrequited love. In the end all I can do is try not to let my feelings show."

For a minute silence reigned between them. The breeze ruffled Sukea's hair as he stared at her with an expression she simply couldn't place. If pressed to pick a word she would have described it as awe. Then suddenly he was grabbing her wrist and hurrying off in the opposite direction of where she had originally intended to go today, dragging her along with him and ignoring her questioning protests. Kakashi could usually be found by the memorial stone on the mornings he wasn't in his office. Sukea was instead leading her in to the residential blocks that usually housed bachelor shinobi. She was pretty sure Captain Yamato lived in the one they dashed in to.

Sukea didn't answer any of the questions she threw at him as he hastened them up to the third floor and took a key out of his pocket. She had a moment to at least be grateful they didn't appear to be breaking in before she found herself somewhere that looked strangely familiar. As her companion finally let go of her hand she set aside the feeling that she had been here at least once before in favor of glaring at him, hands firmly planted on her hips.

"I say no to a date so you drag me to your apartment?" she demanded. Sukea shot her a wild grin as he discarded his scarf and coat, revealing the typical shinobi pants and sweater underneath. Throw on a vest and he would blend in with the rest of the jōnin.

"Maa, Sakura, do you have any idea how much it irritates the throat to change one's voice?" His question gave her pause. Especially as he did sound hoarse when he said it. She watched him scratch at the purple marking under his eyes and was surprised to see one edge of it lift away. As he began to peel the apparently false marking off, he turned away to his kitchen table.

"I – what? What are you talking about?" She was so confused.

The man coughed a couple times and hummed under his breath as he fiddled with what she recognized as a case for holding contact lenses. What was going on?

"At least this time I didn't have to do it for the whole day. It's still uncomfortable though." He was rubbing at his face with a towel as he spoke, but even muffled she could tell that his voice had changed to something else entirely. It was deeper and richer and…much too familiar.

"S-Sukea?"

She watched from behind, almost in slow motion, as he reached up one pale hand and grabbed a fistful of his own hair, pulling it to one side to reveal that it had been a wig. The silver hair hiding underneath sprang to attention immediately, standing up in messy spikes the way it always did. Her breath caught in her throat when he turned around and she could see the scar cutting through his left eye – now a dark onyx color.

"Maa, you usually call me Kakashi," he said with a wink. Then he smirked and it felt like her world was unravelling.

"Ka-Ka-Kakashi? Oh…oh my god… _why were you pretending to be Sukea_?!" The fact that she had just confessed her hidden love to the man she had been trying to hide it from spun through her mind like a wind jutsu out of control. So she covered it up the same way she had always covered up being flustered: she got angry. Fists clenched at her sides and she gave him the stoniest glare she could muster. He seemed unperturbed by her anger, however. His smirk widened and, despite her best efforts, she could feel her knees weaken as he slowly prowled closer.

"There never was a Sukea," he revealed. "I made him up."

"Even when we were genin?"

"Mhm."

A tendril of real anger crept in as she realized, years too late, that she'd been had. "So the whole time you were following us around trying to get a picture of your face, _you were showing us your face_?! UGH YOU –"

Her words cut off abruptly as her ex-sensei stopped in front of her and leaned in. She jumped when she felt his fingers caress her jaw, too focused on his beautiful face so close to notice that his arms were moving, encircling her. When he pulled her body flush against her own she thought her heart would beat straight out of her chest.

"So. I hear from a reliable source that you think you might be in love with me." Sakura renewed her glare.

"You tricked me in to telling you that!" Even so, her hands lifted of their own accord and held on to his biceps. His wonderfully toned biceps that she had maybe fantasized about biting a time or two. She was dreaming wasn't she?

"To be fair, I had no idea of your feelings. I was just going to flirt a little then go back to pining in my sad little corner." That smirk was going to be the death of her. "This little revelation was not in my plans. But I can't say I'm terribly upset."

"Pining?" she questioned. What in the world would he need to pine for?

Kakashi hummed and leaned down to whisper directly in to her ear, "For you. For your arms around me. For your body against mine. For your time and your heart and everything in between." She gasped at his words, and then gasped again when she felt a hot tongue tracing the outer shell of her ear. Her eyes closed with a soft moan. Who knew she was sensitive there?

"Kakashi," she breathed his name. It was hard to concentrate under his ministrations. "Are you – oh – are you saying what I think you are?"

He pulled away just enough that they could gaze in to each other's eyes. With a gentle smile he spoke in a serious tone for the first time, "I'm saying that I love you too, Sakura. I have for some time. I think we had similar reasons for keep our feelings to ourselves."

If his words hadn't made her melt, the kiss he followed them up with would have. He pressed his lips to hers gently, caressing them with a sigh so soft she almost thought it had come from herself. Sakura slid her hands up his arms and locked them about his neck as she kissed back, almost overwhelmed by what was happening. She hadn't expected any of this. Would never have even dared to ask for it.

When they parted Sakura looked up to see him smiling tenderly.

"Would you like to come over for dinner tomorrow night?" he asked. She pressed a little closer to him.

"You can cook? I admit that's a bit of a surprise." His arms tightened to keep her there.

"I think you'll find that I'm full of surprises."

He leaned in for a second kiss and Sakura thought to herself that she was really very glad that she'd had a bad day yesterday. If she hadn't she would never have had such a good day today.


End file.
